The Way They Were
by FearlessAndRed
Summary: "Mara, you're acting a little wierd." "What are you talking about? I'm acting like I always do." "Jerome, why are you doing your homework?" "Because it's mandatory Alfie. Maybe you should do yours too." "So, Jerome and Mara, are now Mara and Jerome?" "I suppose so." When Jerome and Mara drink something strange they switch personalities. Will they ever get back to the way they were?
1. Cloudy Lemonade Sort Of

**Disclaimer: I do not own House of Anubis.**

**A/N: This story is set in an alternative timeline where it's after the Season 2 Finale but Mara and Jerome didn't get together, Nina isn't leaving and there will be no new characters. However, Mick has gone back to Australia and Nina and Fabian, Amber and Alfie and Patricia and Eddie are together. I will still be updating my House of Mara's Troubles story as well as this one. However my Quick Kisses story will not be as updated as often because that's really more for when I have nothing else to write. I hope you enjoy this new story! x**

**Chapter 1: Cloudy lemonade... sort of.**

It was a Sunday at Anubis House and Victor and Trudy were out doing different things. Alfie Lewis stumbled out of the cellar holding a crate of random potions that he had found in there. He wondered into the kitchen where Nina Martin, Fabian Rutter, Amber Millington, Joy Mercer, Patricia Williamson and Eddie Miller, otherwise known as Sibuna (Eddie and Joy had now been initiated), were standing.

"What are you doing Alfie?" Nina asked, leaning against the kitchen counter next to Fabian.

"Yeah, mystery's over buddy." Eddie reminded him, his arm around Patricia's shoulders. Patricia had pretended to be annoyed at him for doing that but she was secretly pleased.

"I wanted to experiment!" Alfie said, placing the crate onto the kitchen counter in the middle of the kitchen then rubbing his hands together excitedly.

"No way." Amber shook her head, going to stand next to him. "What if they turned you into something gross? I don't want my boyfriend to be gross!"

"Too late for that Amber." Joy joked, earning a glare from Alfie.

Alfie took a bottle of something that looked like cloudy lemonade out of the crate and placed it on the counter to the side of him

"Come one Alfie." Fabian said. "Let's take the crate back down to the cellar. We don't want to mess with this stuff. Anything could happen."

"Fine." Alfie sighed. "Spoilsports."

He lifted the crate up and took it out of the room; the rest of Sibuna followed him, forgetting about the bottle that they were leaving behind.

**Line Break.**

A minute later Jerome and Mara walked into the kitchen.

"No Jerome! I am not doing that." Mara raised her hands up in protest. "I need a drink." She said to herself, opening one of the cupboards, looking for a glass. "Would you like something?" She asked Jerome.

"Yeah, might as well." He said, leaning against the sink. "Why won't you do this for me?"

Mara set two glasses on the counter and turned to face him. "Because, Jerome, I simply don't want to dress up as the back end of a donkey, with you as the front half, so you can freak out Alfie when he walks into your bedroom and finds a pantomime donkey in there." She turned back around and picked up a bottle of something. "Do you want some of this? I think it's cloudy lemonade." She said, pouring some of it into her own glass.

"Sure. If I let you be the front half of the donkey would you do it?" Jerome tried to convince her.

"No!" She exclaimed, pouring him some of the drink.

They stood there; quietly drinking what they thought was cloudy lemonade, glaring at each other. When they'd finished, Mara took the glasses and placed them in the washing up bowl saying "Well if you don't want to do the prank then fine. I'll think of something I can do myself."

Jerome rolled his eyes. "I'd prefer you didn't do anything at all but I know I can't convince you to do that so as long as you don't involve me in it then I won't say anything else about it."

"Fine." Mara snapped.

"Fine!" Jerome repeated.

They left the kitchen, and went into Jerome's room. Jerome sat on one end of his bed, doing his homework, while Mara sat on the other, playing on Jerome's PSP.


	2. Sibuna Meeting

**A/N: Sorry I haven't updated very often! I will try to do it more often! Oh, and justkeeptyping? There's something in here that I think you'll like. x**

**Chapter 2: Sibuna Meeting**

Alfie wondered into his and Jerome's room after putting the crate back in the cellar. He froze when he saw Jerome doing homework and Mara playing on a PSP.

Then Amber followed him in saying "Have you seen Mara? I," but then she stopped when she saw them. "Mara what are you doing?"

Mara looked up. "What does it look like?" She waved the PSP in Amber's face then went back to playing on it.

Alfie and Amber exchanged bewildered looks. "Mara, you're acting a little weird." Amber said.

"What are you talking about? I'm acting like I always do." Mara said, not looking up from the game she was playing.

Amber raised her eyebrows in confusion. Then Alfie decided to find out what Jerome was up to. "Jerome, why are you doing your homework?"

"Because it's mandatory Alfie. Maybe you should do yours too." Jerome gave Alfie the "You do not take life seriously enough" look that Mara usually gave him.

"Alfie, I need to talk to you, outside." Amber pulled him out of the room by his hand. After closing the bedroom door they nearly walked into Nina and Fabian, who were looking just as worried as they were.

"Problem!" Nina exclaimed. "I just found this in the kitchen." She held up the empty potion bottle. "It's one of the potions from the crate."

"Mara and/or Jerome must have drank it because they're the only ones who don't know what it was, since Trudy's still out." Fabian added.

"That would explain something." Alfie commented.

"What?" Fabian asked.

"Mara and Jerome are acting a little... Strangely." Amber said.

"Sibuna meeting. Now." Nina said.

**Line Break.**

Once all of Sibuna had gathered in the kitchen and Alfie had checked that Jerome and Mara were still safely in Alfie and Jerome's room the meeting began.

"Right." Nina began. "Something weird is definitely going on. What we know so far is that we left a potion in the kitchen and now it's gone and Mara and Jerome are acting odd."

"We should probably check that it was definitely them that drank it." Fabian thought out loud.

"I'll do it!" Alfie said and left the kitchen. The others looked at each other, wandering what he was going to do...

**Line Break.**

As Mara and Jerome sat on Jerome's bed there was a knock on the door and Alfie popped his head round it. "Did both of you drink the cloudy lemonade?" He asked.

"Yup." Mara said, popping the "p".

"Yes, we did. Sorry, was it yours?" Jerome asked.

"Yeah, but don't worry about it!" He said, rushing out of the room.

**Line Break.**

"We need to worry about this." Alfie said, getting cereal and a bowl out of the cupboard.

"Why? What did they say?" Nina asked.

"Alfie, what are you doing?" Patricia asked.

"They said they drank it. I'm making myself some cereal. I eat when I'm worried." Alfie replied, pouring the cereal into a bowl.

"Just don't pour orange juice instead of milk." Eddie teased him.

"That was one time, okay? _One time!_" Alfie exclaimed.

"I think we need to focus on the problem at hand here." Joy said, rolling her eyes.

"Right." Nina agreed. "So now we know that Mara and Jerome definitely did drink some strange potion and now they're acting odd."

"But the thing is, they're not just acting odd, they're acting like _each other_." Amber said.

"So, Jerome and Mara, are now Mara and Jerome?" Joy asked.

"I suppose so."Amber shrugged.

"So, to be clear, the potion made Mara and Jerome switch personalities?" Patricia asked.

"Yeah..." Fabian said, worried.

"I think we should test this theory." Eddie said wickedly.


	3. Testing the Theory

**Chapter 3: Testing the Theory**

"I don't want you to do this!" Patricia whispered angrily at Eddie as they stood in the hallway outside the living room at Anubis House.

"I'm doing it so we can see if we're right about what happened to Mara and Jerome" Eddie whispered back, just as angrily.

"Oh, right." Patricia said sarcastically crossing her arms. "You're just using it as an excuse to flirt with Mara." She added spitefully.

"I'm not and are you jealous?" He raised his eyebrows.

"No." She lied, looking away. "Just get in there and do what you have to do."

So Eddie walked into the living room and sat down next to Mara. "Hey Mara, not tailing Jerome for once?" He asked, asking her the same question he'd once asked Jerome.

Mara put her book down and looked at Eddie. "I do _not_ tail Jerome." She lied obviously. Eddie raised his eyebrows. "We just happen to end up in the same place...at exactly the same time..." she trailed off, frowning in thought.

"Oh, alright then. If you say so." Eddie shrugged and moved closer to Mara on the sofa. Mara saw what he was doing and looked at him sideways on as she raised an eyebrow.

As Eddie placed an arm around her shoulder, Mara said stiffly "And what exactly do you think you're doing, Sweety?"

Eddie moved his arm away and raised his hands in surrender. "Nothing, nothing at all." Mara gave him a weird look as he got up and said casually "Well, I'll see you around Mara." and walked away.

Mara shook her head and went back to her book, saying "Weird Americans."

**Line Break.**

Later on, Sibuna sat in Nina's and Amber's room.

"So, what do you think?" Nina asked Eddie as she sat on her bed next to fabian.

"Oh, Mara's definitely got Jerome's personality. She called me "Sweety"." Eddie replied, rolling his eyes as he randomly looked through Amber's stuff.

"Don't touch my stuff." Amber frowned, sitting on her bed next to Alfie.

"So...what do we do?" Alfie asked.

Nina frowned, thinking. Then she decided on an idea. "Research." Everyone groaned. "It's the only way we'll find out if there's a way to fix this. Meet in the library, tomorrow after school. Okay?"

"Fine." Everyone sighed.

**Line Break.**

Meanwhile, downstairs, Mara opened the door to Jerome and Alfie's room and leaned against the doorway, her arms crossed. "Hey, Clarke."

Jerome looked up from the work he was doing on his bed and smiled. "Hello Mara."

"Still doing homework, I see." She commented as she sat on the end of his bed.

"Actually, this is extra revision."

Mara laughed. "Of course it is."

"Is there something you wanted, Mara?"

"Well, I did just come to spend time with you...but something weird just happened." and she told Jerome about what had just happened with Eddie.

Jerome wasn't sure why, but the idea of Eddie possibly flirting with Mara made him feel...slightly angry. But he dismissed it, it was nothing, it wasn't like he liked Mara...he didn't think he did anyway..._ Did _he like Mara?

"Jerome?" Mara waved her hand in his face.

"Oh, right." He cleared his throat. "Well, you know... I'm sure Eddie was just in a weird mood."

"Maybe." Mara shrugged, letting it go. She turned to face Jerome and crossed her legs, making herself more comfortable on Jerome's bed. "Stop doing unnecessary work and hang out with me."

Jerome looked up from his work and laughed. "Fine." He put the work on his desk and asked "So, what do you want to do?"

**A/N: Hello again, so it's been a while. Thank you for reading this chapter and have a look at my profile for some important notices! Xx**


	4. The Chemistry Experiment

**Chapter 4: The Chemistry Experiment**

In the end, they decided to play a game of snap.

"Snap!" Mara practically screamed as she slammed her hand down on top of Jerome's, she was kneeling on his bed and nearly lost her balance in her effort to beat him.

"Alright, chill Miss Competitive." Jerome laughed at her. "You win." He said, beginning to pack the cards away.

But Mara reached for the cards in his hands, "No, why don't we play again?" But as pulled the cards out of Jerome's hands the cards went flying everywhere.

"Well done." Jerome said sarcastically.

"Sorry." Mara mumbled. "Bet you can't find the ace of hearts before me." she challenged.

"You're on." Jerome said.

They both began a scramble around the room, but it was Jerome who found it first. "Ahah!" he said as he picked it up.

"Give it here." Mara said.

"Nope." Jerome shook his head, he didn't even know what the point of this was but they were bored and it was fun, so he went along with it. He waved the card high up in the air and turned around to put the card on a high shelf, so Mara couldn't reach it, when, to his surprise, he was nearly knocked over by Mara jumping on his back and reaching out one hand to try and snatch it from him.

They were shouting and laughing at and with each other when suddenly they span around to face the door and Alfie opened it.

"Jerome..." He trailed off, noticing Mara precariously balanced on Jerome's back trying to reach the card. "Um..."

Mara hopped off Jerome's back and straightened her skirt. "Well, I better...go get ready for bed. See you boys later." Then off she went.

"We were just-" Jerome started but Alfie waved his hand.

"I don't really care mate. You do what you do. Weird way of getting her attention though." Alfie said, closing the bedroom door and looking for his pyjamas.

"I wasn't trying to get her attention. I don't like Mara like that." Jerome denied, looking weirdly at Alfie.

Then Alfie realised, Jerome had Mara's personality so might not have admitted to himself that he liked Mara yet, because Mara hadn't admitted to herself that she liked Jerome yet and... Alfie stopped thinking about it then because he was confusing himself.

**Line Break.**

The next day in Chemistry, they were doing an experiment and Jerome and Mara were working together with Amber and Alfie were opposite them. Jerome was writing some of their results down in a table when he noticed Mara doing something slightly different to what they had been told.

"Um, Mara. You're doing it wrong." He told her.

"No." She shook her head with a smile on her lips. "I'm doing something different."

"Oh no." Amber moaned. "This isn't going to end well."

"Jerome, you better do something." Alfie said.

"Why me?" Jerome asked.

"Your her partner! make her do he work." Amber said, waving her hand at him, as if to say "Get on with it!", narrowly missing her and Alfie's own experiment.

"Mara-" Jerome turned to her to tell her to stop, but too late. Their was an explosion similar to fireworks and then the room was filled with smoke.

**Line Break.**

It turned out Mara had just had the worst timing. The moment the smoke filled the room, Mr Sweet walked in, wanting to speak to Eddie. He ended up speaking to Mara and Jerome in his office.

"I am extremely disappointed in you Mara, I expected better of you. And Jerome, you should have stopped her. This is very strange, I would usually expect for this to be the other way round. I suspect Jerome is having a bad influence on you Mara. You will stay in here for another hour, as your detention. And you might want to clean your faces afterwards, your covered in ash." And with that Mr Sweet left them alone in the office.

They turned to each other, very confused. "What did he mean, "I would usually expect for this to be the other way round"? We've always been like this." Jerome wandered.

"No idea." Mara shrugged. "Must have got us confused with someone else."

"What are we going to do in here for an hour?" Jerome asked.

"You have got the pleasure of hanging out with me for an hour." Mara said, smirking. Trying to hide the happiness she felt when Jerome didn't seem to bothered by that fact.


	5. Are You Scared?

**Chapter 5: Are You Scared?**

"For goodness sake! Mara nearly blew us all up!" Amber nearly shouted, standing on the ground floor of the library with the other members of Sibuna. She crossed her arms.

"Amber, quietly!" Fabian said.

"Amber, calm down. You're exagerating." Patricia said. "And don't worry Fabian, there's no one else here."

"We need to do something, _now_." Amber insisted.

"But what can we do?" Nina sighed in frustration from her position sitting on a chair at a table surrounded by books. Slamming one book shut she continued, "I swear we've searched every book in this library for a way to get Jerome and Mara back to the way they were and found nothing. "

"Maybe we'll have to look in the cellar, or the room at the entrance to the tunnels." Alfie suggested.

"Alfie's right Nina, there might be something there. That is where Alfie got the potion that switched their personalities." Fabian agreed.

"And Victor's at the school at some staff meeting for the evening." Joy said. "So as long as we can distract Trudy and someone can sneek past her and look then we should be fine."

"Trudy's easy to distract compared to Victor." Eddie said.

"Alright." Nina nodded. "Let's give it a go."

They all picked up their bags and left the library.

Up on the mezzanine, Jerome and Mara stood frozen to the spot.

After a while, Jerome moved to the railing and lent on it, looking down at the groound floor. "Potion? Switched our personalities? The way we were?" He turned to look at Mara and she came and stood next to him.

Leaning against the railing like he was, she said "I always thought something strange was going on but I never thought it was this strange."

Jerome frowned, remembering all that he knew but she didn't. "Mara, I should probably tell you what I know." She looked at him, then nodded as a signal for him to go on. He told her all he knew about what had been happening with the mystery.

Mara listened and when he had finished said, "That explains a lot." She then didn't say anything for a while, and Jerome left her to think, there was a lot to sink in.

"So...you trust me then?" Mara asked, looking up at Jerome. "Since you told me all this... I was just wondering..."

"Of course I trust you." Jerome said sounding surprise. "I told you all about my family, didn't I?"

"Well, yes. I just, sometimes I don't feel very trustworthy." She shrugged.

Jerome took Mara's hand, "I trust you completely."

Mara smiled. "Thank you. I trust you too." They settled into a silence again, both looking into space as they lent against the banister.

Without looking at Jerome, Mara asked him "Are you scared?"

"Of what?" He said, still staring out into space.

"Of the fact that we're not who we think we are? Of the fact that we're each other?" Mara looked at him.

He looked at her and nodded. "Are you?"

Mara hesitated, unsure about whether to say what she felt, but then she remembered she trusted him. "Yes. I'm worried. I feel...lost."

Jerome let go of Mara's hand only to wrap his arms around her in a hug. Mara lent against his chest and let herself be comforted.

**A/N: Thank you for reading, I hope you liked this new chapter. Please review and also check out my new story "I Think it's Best if We Both Stay". Xx**


	6. Unsure

**Chapter 6: Unsure**

The next morning at school, Jerome and Mara walked through the corridors together. They'd skipped breakfast as they'd been avoiding the others since they'd found out what was going on yesterday evening. They stopped walking once they'd gotten to the classroom they had their first lesson in and stood facing each other. Neither of them had felt very talkative, they were a bit unsure of themselves, seeing as they weren't entirely sure who they actually were.

Mara looked at the wall and noticed a poster for the next school dance. "Well, that might be fun."

Jerome nodded.

Then Mara suddenly started talking very quickly, the words spilling out of her mouth. "Or would it be? Because I don't know! I keep wanting to say things then not being sure whether to say them or not because I don't know if I would normally say them and I -"

Jerome placed his hands on Mara's shoulders and interrupted her "Mara. Calm down. We'll talk to the others at lunch and we'll sort everything out. Okay?"

Mara nodded. "Okay." She paused and took a deep breath. "Jerome... I want to be honest with you about something... but I'm not sure if what I'm going to tell you is actually how I feel or... how you feel..." She looked up at him and pressed her lips together, nervously.

"Well..." Jerome said nervously, taking his hands off her shoulders. "If I tell you how I feel about what you tell me then... we'll know how both of us feel just not which of us said what... I know it's a bit confusing. But it works. Right?"

Mara nodded again. "Right." Shaking nervously and looking down, she took his right hand in her left. Still looking down she said "I like you. I really like you. And as more than a friend and I feel like... like I've wanted to be with you for years, like I've always wanted... you and if I have you then all of this that we're going through... it matters a little less." Mara stood there, still looking down, her hair hiding her face.

Jerome looked down at her and thought. He decided to completely ignore what he thought he knew, because he wasn't entirely sure how true that was, and go with his instinct and how he felt there and then. "You're amazing and wonderful and I want to go out with you."

Mara looked up at him, her head to the side. "Really?"

He nodded.

Mara lent in and their lips were almost touching when they suddenly heard people walking down the hallway and jumped apart. When they looked to see who it was they saw it was only people, who they didn't know, starting to arrive for lessons. They still both obviously felt the moment had passed though, because, instead of leaning in again, they stood leaning against the wall outside their classroom, waited for their teacher to arrive and let a comfortable silence settle between them.

**Line Break.**

Later at lunch, Sibuna sat in the drama room on a group of arm chairs and sofas in a circle. They were in the middle of a whispered conversation when Mara and Jerome walked up to them.

"We overheard what you said in the library yesterday." Mara stated. "And Jerome has told me all about your little mystery."

"Jerome!" Nina exclaimed.

"I had to! I couldn't have left her in the dark about that when we'd overheard what we had." Jerome argued.

"You could have not eavesdropped on our private conversation." Amber said.

"You could have not had a private conversation in a place open to anyone at school." Mara retaliated.

"Look, I don't think arguing is going to fix this." Fabian said.

"Then what is?" Mara asked.

Nina got an old-looking piece of paper out of her bag and said "Well, we found this in a book in the cellar yesterday, and it sounds like the reversal potion for the one you accidentally drank. So, we're going to try and make it."

"That's good." Jerome said.

"Well, it is..." Nina ran her hand through her hair. "But there is one thing you probably won't be happy about."

"What?" Mara asked suspiciously.

Nina bit her lip and then said "It takes a month to make."


	7. A Kiss and a Poppy

**A/N: So I feel like this chapter is probably too short and possibly not very good, but I wanted to put it up anyway because I haven't updated this story in a few days and I have been working on this chapter for a bit and I don't think it's going to get any better than it is, but I hope you still enjoy it anyway. Hopefully, it'll be better next chapter! As always, enjoy! Xx**

**Chapter 7: A Kiss and a Poppy**

"_A month?_"Mara asked, collapsing onto Jerome's bed. As she lay there, staring at the ceiling, Jerome sat down next to her.

"I know it seems like a long time but we'll be fine Mara. It'll be over before you know it." He reassured her.

Mara's eyes looked up into his. She slowly sat up and moved so she was sitting next to Jerome, both of them sitting with their legs over the side of the bed. "I suppose you're right. But a month can seem like forever when you have no idea who you are. I feel like I have amnesia, but only with my personality. That sounds really strange. Anyway, I just really hope they manage to make the potion. Amber seems more worried about what dress she's going to wear to the dance than she does about us." Mara stared sadly at the floor.

"I'm sure that's not true. Amber just appears to be a bit selfish sometimes on the outside but she really does care." Jerome reassured her.

Mara frowned up at him. "I have the distinct feeling that what you just said is something more like what I would normally say. I think I would usually understand Amber more than you do, but now it's the other way round. And knowing that just feels so strange." She looked down at the floor again.

Jerome took Mara's hand and when he did, he saw a small smile tug at the corner of her lips. "I know this sounds incredibly cheesy," he started, "but at least we've got each other. Like you said earlier, it matters a little less when we do."

Mara nodded and looked up at him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him and Jerome wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer. A few moments later, Mara pulled away slightly and they looked each other in the eye for a second before leaning in and kissing. For the past day or so, both Jerome and Mara had felt at a complete loss as to how they were supposed to act and feel but they suddenly found it was very clear. At that moment it didn't matter that they'd drank some strange potion that had made them switch personalities and that they wouldn't be back to normal for a month.

**Line Break.**

The next morning, Jerome and Mara were at Jerome's locker when Mara glanced over his shoulder and her eyes widened.

"What is it?" He asked, turning around to see Poppy walking up to them.

"Hi." She said brightly.

Both of them had blank looks on their faces, they weren't entirely sure what to say incase Poppy guessed something was wrong.

Poppy raised an eyebrow at them.

"Hi." They both said at once, realising that if they didn't say anything at all she was even more likely to guess that something had happened.

"Um... Okay. Well, I just wanted to ask how you were..." Poppy said, tailing off. Obviously a bit bewildered by their slightly strange behaviour.

"I'm alright. How are you?" Jerome said, deciding that was a safe thing to say.

Poppy narrowed her eyes slightly. "You're being nice." She stated. Mara and Jerome looked at each other in panic, worried she'd find something out, but then she said "Mara must be having an impact on you. Something's going on here." and wiggled her eyebrows cheekily.

"How did you know?" Jerome asked.

"Jerome!" Mara exclaimed.

"Wait... Are you two actually going out?" Poppy asked. "Oh my god! This is brilliant. I can't wait to let dad know, I told him this would happen." And she walked off happily to her next lesson.

"Well... Now she knows." Mara said.

"Yup." Jerome said, popping the "p".

"To drama?" She asked.

"Yup" He said again and they walked off down the hallyway.


	8. Feeling a Little Reckless

**Chapter 8: Feeling a Little Reckless**

When Mara and Jerome got to drama, they sat down with the members of Sibuna.

"How's the potion going?" Jerome asked them quietly.

"Well, we found all the ingredients we need, and we found this cauldron-type thing to put it all in. So we've left it under Nina's bed and all we have to do now is add a certain ingredient once everynight for the next month." Patricia said, frowning at Eddie who was flicking small paper balls at her.

"Oh! And I've worked out that it will be ready the day before the dance, so you'll be back to normal in time for it" Amber said excitedly.

"That's great, Amber..." Mara said sceptically.

"But we have realised that there's a slight problem. Just before we give it to you we have to boil it for 10 minutes." Nina said frowning. "Which means we'll have to get Trudy and Victor out of the way so we can do that in the kitchen."

"Alfie has volunteered to distract them but we're not sure if we want to let him loose." Eddie said, smiling and the others laughed.

"Hey! I am-" Alfie started but was cut off by the teacher walking in.

"Settle down class! Now, today..."

At the end of school, Mara came running up to Jerome at his locker, a very mischevious expression on her face.

"What are you up to?" Jerome immediately asked.

"Well, I was bored this morning in Maths-"

"Bored? In Maths?"

Mara rolled her eyes. "Don't go nerd on me. It's possible. So, I was bored and I was thinking of things that would stop me being bored... and... I thought of something me and you could do that would be... fun. I just want to do something a little crazy." Her eyes were twinkling.

"Oh dear, that doesn't sound good. You know, seeing as we're not ourselves, infact we don't even know who ourselves are, we shouldn't really be doing things on a whim..." Jerome shook his head but he couldn't deny that he was going to find it very hard to not be persuaded by those twinkling eyes.

The next morning in school, just after the bell had gone and people had started to wander off to their lessons, Jerome and Mara walked slowly through the hallway. As well as her school bag, Mara carried a box covered in a tea towel.

"Mara, we're going to be late to Chemistry, they're going to notcie we're gone and we're not going to have an alibi. They're going to know this was our doing!" Jerome said nervously.

"So what? Let them find out it was us. I'm feeling a little... _reckless_." Mara replied.

Jerome frowned, annoyed that he couldn't help but find Mara attractive at that moment (well, he always found her attractive, but he was trying to tell her off so right then it was annoying). "I still don't think it was a good idea. How did you even get that out of the Biology room with no one noticing anyway?" He gestured to the box Mara was carrying.

"I told you, I've been planning this. I've kept an eye on the schedule for that room and no one is in there first lesson today." She stopped outside Mr Sweet's office and checked that the coast was clear. "Right, we'll put one in here and then the rest can go in a Year 7 classroom, they get freaked out easily." Looking around again, she put the box down and took off the tea towel to reveal a glass tank with frogs inside. "When I take one out you open the door slightly and I'll put it inside." She told Jerome.

"But, it'll be locked because he's not in there. He's in the Chemistry room, _which is where we should be right now_." Jerome protested.

"If you really thought that you wouldn't be here with me would you? And I have a solution to that problem." Mara took a bobby pin from her hair, winked at Jerome and knelt infront of the door. After a moment, there was a click. "Success! You ready?" She turned to Jerome.

"As I'll ever be."


	9. Detention

**A/N: So, you're probably going to be really annoyed at me, one, for not updating very often, and, two, for this being awfully short. Well, I am keeping my promise of updating at least once a week, and I will continue to keep that promise. As for this being really short, I hope you don't want to kill me for it, but I'm very busy packing for a school trip that I'm going on tomorrow and I've had lots of school work and things. Hopefully the chapters will get longer after this one, and they probably will since it's my week off for half term holiday next week. Oh, and the trip I'm going on tomorrow will mean I'm away until Sunday evening, so don't forget after this update you won't get anything out of me until probably Monday. So, I hope you enjoy this and once again I apologise for being a less-than-average fanfiction writer. Xx**

**Chapter 9: Detention**

Jerome tapped his fingers on the desk he was sharing with Mara in detention.

"Why do you always want to get into trouble?" He sighed at her.

She smiled at him, "Live a little, Jerome. And actually, seeing as this potion supposedly switched our personalities, it would usually be you who always wants to get into trouble. Well, I doubt you'd _want_ to get into trouble, more you'd want to have a little fun that may not be within the school rules and therefore get into trouble as a by-product of that."

"It's strange to think of us as actually each other, isn't it?" Jerome said.

Mara nodded, "Yeah, I can only remember being the way I am now, but that potion must have altered our memories because apparently I wasn't always like this."

Jerome nodded, then remembered something. "Where'd Mr Sweet go?"

"Phone Victor about something, I think." Mara paused, thinking. "Isn't it weird how much control Victor has over this place? I mean, since you've explained everything you and Sibuna know, I can sort of see why, but even so, it's a bit strange that Mr Sweet let's him have so much control. I mean, isn't he only a janitor?"

Jerome nodded. "That is weird, but maybe he was higher up than Mr Sweet in that weird society they used to have."

Mara shrugged. "Maybe."

They sat in silence for a few minutes, thinking.

"Will you go to the dance with me?" Mara asked, out of the blue. "The one Amber says we'll be back to normal for."

"I would love to." Jerome smiled down at her. "Mara?"

"Yeah?"

"Are we... I mean, would you say we were... boyfriend and girlfriend?" He asked, looking down at his fingers.

"'Course we are." Mara said.

"Oh, good. It's just, I wasn't sure if one of us had ever asked the other out." Jerome said, leaning closer to her.

"I don't think either of us_ technically _asked, but I do recall you saying that I was amazing and wonderful and you wanted to go out with me." Mara said in a very flirty manner, leaning closer as well.

"Well, I'd say that's close enough." Jerome said, before closing the space between them and pressing his lips to hers.

"Jerome! Mara! When I said sit in silence I did not mean that you could do that!"

"Sorry, Mr Sweet."


End file.
